Indoor dining will return to New York City on Valentine’s Day at 25% capacity, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.

Indoor dining was shut down in New York City in December.

On March 15, in-person weddings can resume in New York at 50% capacity, or up to 150 people, he said.

Meanwhile, in hard-hit Los Angeles County, outdoor dining is now allowed to reopen at 50% capacity, but with a restriction: TVs must remain off.

Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday the U.S. has seen a decline in the last two weeks of new cases and hospitalizations, which is “encouraging." But, he added, "The numbers nationally are still high."

"The pandemic is not yet over yet," Butler told the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "By the time we end our 45 minutes together, roughly 100 more Americans will have died of COVID-19."

Butler stressed that the vaccines are safe and effective and that mild side effects are normal.

"The available data tells us that more than half of people have reported some degree of tiredness and pain at the injection site, although most are able to continue normal daily activities," Butler said. "Many also report symptoms such as headache, muscle pain or chills after getting their shots, particularly in the first couple of days. These data also suggest that it may be more common among younger persons after the second dose, but again, this is expected based on some of the data that were available from the clinical trials."

ABC News’ Sophie Tatum contributed to this report.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Friday was recommended for conditional marketing authorization in the European Union for people 18 and older. The vaccine is given as two doses.

This is the third vaccine, following Pfizer and Moderna, to be approved by the European Medicines Agency. The AstraZeneca vaccine now awaits final say from the European Commission.

In another promising development for vaccine science, Johnson & Johnson announced Friday that its COVID-19 vaccine -- a single shot tested against a complex barrage of newly emerged variants of the virus -- is 66% effective at preventing symptomatic disease and 85% effective against preventing severe illness.

The U.S. pharmaceutical giant said the vaccine is also safe to take. Volunteers experienced mild reactions after the shot, with less than 10% experiencing fever, according to a company press release.

The full data package will be made publicly available and will be evaluated by the FDA's advisory committee sometime in mid- to late February.

The Food and Drug Administration has said it will consider a vaccine that's more than 50% effective, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine exceeds this threshold. An emergency use authorization could be given and people could start receiving shots before the end of February.

ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging across Africa as new, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus spread to additional countries, the World Health Organization warned Thursday.

"The variant which was first detected in South Africa has spread quickly beyond Africa and so what’s keeping me awake at night right now is that it’s very likely circulating in a number of African countries," Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO's regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

Diagnosed COVID-19 infections increased by 50% in Africa between Dec. 29 and Jan. 25, when compared with the previous four weeks. Deaths from the disease rose two-fold in the same period, with over 15,000 concentrated in 10 mainly southern and northern African nations, according to the WHO.

Over the last week, more than 175,000 new cases and over 6,200 new deaths were reported across the continent. There was a small dip in cases in South Africa, but 22 countries continue to see their numbers surge, according to the WHO.

The B1351 variant, first identified in South Africa, is "predominant and powering record case numbers in South Africa and the sub-region," the WHO said. The strain has been detected in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, the French Indian Ocean region of Mayotte, Zambia and at least 24 non-African nations, according to the WHO.

Meanwhile, another new, highly contagious variant called B117, which was initially detected in the United Kingdom, has been found in Gambia and Nigeria.

The WHO said it is working to track and tackle new strains of the deadly virus. The U.N. agency, along with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has helped set up a COVID-19 genomic sequencing laboratory network with labs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

"In addition to the new variants, COVID-19 fatigue, and the aftermath of year-end gatherings risk powering a perfect storm and driving up Africa’s second wave and overwhelming health facilities," Moeti said. "Africa is at a crossroads. We must stick to our guns and double down on the tactics we know work so well. That is mask wearing, handwashing and safe social distancing. Countless lives depend on it."